Disclaimer: Not mine, never mine.
AN: Hello! It's been something wild like three years since I've updated anything! I recently went back and re-read Ave and the Prisoner and this story, The Forgotten One, and was intrigued by the concepts, so I'm coming back to redo at least this one. They are rife with errors, but hopefully I can rectify that! There will be some changes (such as Tessa's age, etc) but overall the plot (for the few chapters there are) will still be similar! Good luck!
CHAPTER ONE — A RESCUE
Tessa shifted around in her seat, absentmindedly rubbing her arm. She wouldn't even have noticed what she was doing had Professor Severus Snape not stilled her hand with a sympathetic grip and look. Snape's uncharacteristic actions had, however, called the attention of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black to the girl.
Number 12, Grimmauld Place had an anxious air about it that night, and the appearance of an unknown girl had done nothing for Sirius' frayed nerves. When he had asked Albus about her, all the old man would tell him was that she had her own mission to fulfill. This was just the latest in a string of annoyances that Albus had inflicted on Sirius, so the younger man was not in the mood for any more inconveniences. Sirius had endeavored to ignore the girl.
Remus, on the other hand, felt that the girl was vaguely familiar, though he dismissed the thought on the pure basis of how average she looked. She probably just had a common face.
Tessa took in the reactions around the room and the awkward air and rolled her eyes. She knew that Lupin had forgotten her, though he had been her professor just two short years ago. She knew that she made Sirius uncomfortable, though she didn't know why. And she knew that no one, save Snape and Dumbledore, thought she should even be present.
An Order meeting was occurring that night, and Tessa was the only person under the age of twenty allowed to sit in. As a current Hogwarts student, going into her sixth year, none of the other members of the Order thought she should be there (rather obviously thought so to boot). When she had walked into the crowded kitchen just a few minutes earlier, there were more than a few shocked looks thrown her way, but she ignored them. It was none of their concern why she was there, least of all Molly Weasley's (the most vocal of the disapprovals).
A sharp clap shook Sirius, Remus and Tessa out of their respective stupors. "All right," Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody growled at the room. "Everyone knows the plan, correct?"
No one in the very full room dared make a sound. Mad-Eye was intimidating as hell, and far be it from Tessa to break the mood.
Moody nodded. "Good. The guard consists of Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley, Doge, Diggle, Emmeline, Podmore, Hestia, Sperry, and myself. We fly to Potter's under a disillusionment charm and retrieve the boy exactly according to the plan we created last time. Any questions?"
Tessa's hand fluttered into the air hesitantly.
"What, Sperry, could it possibly be?" Moody's plea for questions was, apparently, rhetorical.
"Yes, erm, I was just wondering why I was chosen to be a part of the guard?" Tessa stuttered out. "I mean I'm only here in the first place for—"
Moody quickly cut her off. "Only Dumbledore, Snape and I know that and it's staying that way Sperry. Besides, that reason is exactly the reason that you are coming with us. Are there any other questions that you don't already know the answer to?" Moody glared around threateningly. There was no time for frivolities.
The only hand to raise was Sirius'. Moody rolled his eyes. "No, you cannot join us Sirius."
As she shivered from her perch on the broom, Tessa once more questioned the logic of her presence. Why couldn't someone else, Molly Weasley for example who seemed to have so many opinions on everything, have taken her place? Especially tonight when it kept tingling with increasing intensity. Her hand was once more drawn unknowingly to her left arm.
Moody shot purple sparks into the air above her, the agreed upon signal that it was time to descend.
The front yard of Number 4, Privet Drive was perfectly manicured, despite the drought that had been plaguing the region of England. Tessa quirked an eyebrow as she came to a smooth landing. It seemed Harry Potter's relatives were unconcerned with the water limits that had been imposed.
"Hurry up Sperry!" Moody called back at her. In the time it had taken her to land her broom and inspect the lawn, the rest of the guard had already advanced to the front door.
Tessa groaned and tripped over her own feet. If they had wanted someone who would hurry, they should have chosen someone other than Tessa Sperry to fetch Harry Potter of all people. She was pretty sure she was chosen because Moody thought that the Boy-Who-Broke-Every-Rule-Ever would appreciate a familiar face from school, but she highly doubted that he even knew she existed, let alone that she went to his school and was only a year ahead of him.
Moody eyed them all suspiciously. "Stay in the kitchen or I will blast your biceps off. And let me tell you, it is NOT pleasant to wave a wand around without biceps. Lupin, Tonks and I are going up to get Harry and if you all even think about moving, I won't hesitate."
Tessa stifled a snort. Overkill much? He could have just said stay and she would have happily plopped herself into a seat at the kitchen table but no, that would have been too easy. Now she was concerned that if she took a seat, she'd find herself bicep-less (of all things). The kid wasn't that important.
Soon enough, though not before a series of very odd sounds drifted down towards the kitchen, Moody traipsed back down the stairs followed by everyone else. Heading up the rear was the "Trouble-Finds-Me"-Yeah-Right wonder kid himself. Moody went around introducing everyone to Harry, though Tessa noticed that she was excluded from introductions, presumably because Moody thought that Harry already knew her.
That would be the day.
Once Moody had finished, the boy wonder looked questioningly at her. "Who's that? Why didn't you introduce her?"
Moody's normally neutral expression shifted to one with an almost imperceptible amount of surprise written between his grizzled brows. "That's Tessa Sperry. She's a Hufflepuff in the year above yours at school. I thought you'd know her, but I suppose not," He grunted.
Harry flushed slightly, apparently feeling bad because he thought he should know her, but Tessa saw past his sheepish look. His look of disdain was carefully masked, but was there nonetheless. Being a Hufflepuff was not conducive to being respected by other Houses. For all the Gryffindor talk of being noble and accepting, there was an extreme prejudice against anyone who wasn't sorted into the house of the brave fools. Sure they occasionally associated with the odd Ravenclaw, but they never talked to a Hufflepuff without the omnipresent aversion lurking behind their words.
Tessa did her best to ignore it, but it always hurt. Always.
Tessa's trip back to Grimmauld Place was a blur of pain. Her eyes were so badly clouded by pain that she could barely see three feet in front of her face. Her arm was burning now, and she didn't know how much longer she could avoid the obvious.
She waited until she was back at Grimmauld Place before bolting past multiple startled faces and locking herself into the first room she saw. Her knees buckled out beneath her and she ripped up the sleeve that had been covering up her left arm, though she knew what she would see.
The Dark Mark was black and slithering, the sinister skull seeming to leer up at her. Voldemort was calling his slaves to him. And Tessa's choices were to either listen or suffer the consequences.
Tessa crashed into the kitchen, ignoring the startled looks that followed her interruption. She should have known that there would have been another meeting occurring just then, but she hadn't thought. Now she'd have to deal with the consequences.
She pushed her way past a startled Arthur Weasley before clenching onto Moody's robes. She would have preferred Professor Snape, as he would have known the severity of the situation better, but the man had a somewhat deadly look on his face that must have had everything to do with the appearance of Harry Potter, as she had never seen it there before.
"He's calling," she gritted out to Moody, face blanched of all color. Her urgent tone had the current inhabitants of the room shooting even more shocked glances at her than there had been before.
"One moment," The auror grumbled at her. He was currently busy trying to pull his whizzing, electric blue eye out of the glass of water that it was residing in. The eye made its way back to the socket with a sickening pop before Moody turned back to Tessa.
"MOODY I NEED TO GO NOW!" Tessa bellowed. Her interest in flying as below the radar as possible was forgotten with the pressing pain of the writhing Dark Mark.
Two ginger heads popped around the doorway.
"What was that?" Fred peered suspiciously around the room before his eyes settled on Tessa.
George had a similar look on his face as he surveyed the room. "We heard screaming."
"That is none of your concern," Tessa sneered at them. Any chance of being unknown was well and truly shot by now.
"OUT, OUT, OUT!" Molly Weasley shrieked, bustling the protesting twins out of the room. "YOU KNOW THAT YOU AREN'T ALLOWED IN MEETINGS!"
"BUT MUM—"
"—WE'RE OF AGE! SHE ISN'T!"
"SHE'S ONLY A SIXTH YEAR!"
"OUT!"
The screams echoed through the kitchen long after the three were gone.
Tessa immediately turned her attention back to Moody. "NOW! I have to go! He will hurt me later if I don't listen NOW!"
"All right, all right, calm yourself down girl. Severus will side-along with you."
Tessa's good will towards Moody was extremely limited. "Thank you oh-so much for your prompt attention to my pressing urges. It was truly appreciated," She mock-curtsied to Moody, then yanked Snape's sleeve and pulled him along behind her.
Sirius was intrigued. He would find out what the girl was doing, and why she was important enough to be allowed to stop Snape's report right in the middle without serious consequences. Had anyone else done that, they would have been violently exsanguinated. His journey to ignorance would have to be put on hold for the meantime. His new mission was to find out everything there was to know about the girl.
Remus was interested as well. The more he heard the girl talk, the more familiar she seemed. And it made sense combined with the information that she was a current sixth year. Merlin, he should have remembered her! He had to have taught her! Why didn't he remember her? He resolved to speak with Harry, Ron and Hermione about her later. Surely they would know more about her.
"I don't appreciate being ignored," A voice hissed at the kneeling Tessa. Her head was bowed down, hiding the expression of disgust that she was sporting.
"I apologize my Lord. I was in Diagon Alley when you called, and it took me a while to find someone trustworthy to apparate here with," She murmured. Her Occlumency shields were strong and would hold, as long as she didn't say anything that made Voldemort turn his full attention to her.
"Do better next time Teresa," Voldemort whispered. Teresa was a name that Tessa was rarely called, yet it was her given name and thus the one that Voldemort used. "While you are at school, you are to do your best to become friends with the Boy-Who-Lived and his friends. I want monthly updates on what they are doing and what they know."
"Yes my Lord."
"Good. As for the rest of you, start to infiltrate the Ministry. I don't care how you do it, but I want at least one of you in a position so that if Fudge just happens to pass," Here snickers filled the room, "You will be a candidate for Minister."
"Yes my Lord," The whispers echoed Tessa's earlier statement.
Tessa had risen through the ranks of the Death Eaters alarmingly fast. She had been forced to join at the beginning by one of Voldemort's masked men mere weeks after he had been born again, and yet, less than three months later, she was a member of his inner circle. She had come home from Diagon Alley one day only to witness the Death Eaters slaying her brother, the only member of her immediate family that was still alive. Her choices, after witnessing the crime, were severely limited. Either join the Death Eaters, or die herself. The sole reason for her quick flight to infamy was that she was a very talented witch, near in age to Harry Potter and that her house made her easy for everyone to overlook.
After joining, Tessa had immediately gone to Dumbledore and requested that she be taught Occlumency. She didn't want to work for the dark side. And Dumbledore, after some hesitation, had acquiesced, allowing Professor Snape to help her. The only caveat was that she must spy for the Order of the Phoenix (whose existence she hadn't yet known of) and that she must keep it all a secret (which she found all too easy). Now she was residing at Grimmauld Place, with the thought of her slain brother the only thing keeping her from running away to Antarctica away from the Wizarding World and all its problems. She had to stop the people who had killed him.
A quick bow, and a quick side-along apparition later, and Tessa was back in the kitchen of Grimmauld, wanting nothing more than to run upstairs and collapse in the third floor room in which she was staying. Moody, however, had different plans.
"You're going to explain the Order to Potter and his friends," Moody grunted as soon as she walked into the room with Snape.
Awesome. Explaining the Order of the the Phoenix to Pot-Boy and his friends was exactly how she wanted to spend the rest of what had already been a stressful night. How did Moody always know what she wanted the most?